Ireland: Silent but still going strong

The rooftop turbines may no longer turn, but The Green Building nevertheless proves the value of sustainable energy, writes Niall Toner

The wind turbines on top of the Green Building haven’t turned for years. Tethered and rusting, the city centre’s late-20th-century experiment with wind power now serves only as decoration, an eye-catching monument to Birkenstock-clad eco excess. Or, at least, that is what the cynics might say.

Shortly after the building’s first residents moved in during the mid-1990s, there were complaints, mainly from those living on the upper floors of the building, that the turbines were causing vibration and noise. So Temple Bar Properties decided to turn them off and a cynical press leapt on the story with glee, dying to tell the “Temple Bar green experiment is a load of cobbles” story.

The plan was to add some extra shock absorbers and turn them back on, but this didn’t happen. They remain still and silent, relics of lush green exuberance.